12 Months of Photos 2023 Music

Question

January 2023 12 Months of Photos sharing theme: Music

To participate, simply:

1. Choose a family photo that fits this week's theme.
2. Add it to this month's free-space gallery.
3. Reply with an answer below to let us know which photo you're sharing. If you want to include the photo but don't know how, click here.

The photo you share might be featured on the WikiTree home page and in our social media channels.

It is requested that no "best answer" stars be given to any photo, as they are all great pictures without exception and none should be preferred over the other.

Answer 1

Musician! Dave Draper...yes, MEEEEEEEEE!

OH, yeah...I just about forgot about a YouTube video I made. (long story about a new song that came out in 2002 and it didn't have sheet music, so I wrote an arrangement and put it on YouTube.)

So if you want to hear how I played the piano 20 years ago CLICK HERE

Fast forward to 2022:  I came across Draper children who died when rear ended by a drunk driver in Texas in 2015.  It broke my heart!  I never knew about them, as they were distant family.  I wrote this song but it is not on YouTube:  Lost In Your Smile   Enjoy!

Comments

Thank you David for sharing this wonderful music photos

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David, you certainly are an entertaining and talented fellow with a beautiful piano. But I was thinking of your poem the Lonely Genealogist.  I have a friend who listens to me chatter on.  She likes the stories of the people I've found. As you know there's so many stories.  Did I have a Draper? Yes, my 9th GG, Draper-398, 17 degrees from you....through your mother.

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Thank you Susan and Pat

The piano is at Ewing Castle Manor and is over 100 years old. It is in perfect condition and tune.  I was practicing for an event, which was canceled because Covid was just beginning to take hold in central Illinois.  I have not played at events for 3 years now.  But I have much joy entertaing the Wikipedia on Weekend Chat. 

Answer 2

This photo is my oldest daughter, picture taken about June 1981, she is playing or more accurately playing with her great grandmother's (my grandmother's) Steinway baby grand. The story is that the piano was a wedding present to my paternal grandmother from my paternal grandfather, her husband. 

The piano was shipped to Canada from Shropshire, England sometime after my grandmother's 1978 death. The piano entertained many of my parent's children and great grandchildren over about 40 years. The kids made forts under the piano, hid from parents under the piano and found it a good place to retreat to at our very large family gatherings, usually 35-40 people all immediate family!

Comments

I love it, a grand piano must be one of the best roofs when you build a fort! My son would love if we had a grand piano. We have a piano built in Helsingborg, Sweden that I bought about 15 years ago. It is from the 1920s probably.

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Thank you for sharing this wonderful photo of your daughter what a beautiful girl

Answer 3

My Music entries.

Comments

What a wonderful harp Kitty!

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Stoney End Eva.  Walnut double strung, 22 strings on each side.  Gorgeous sound.

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Wonderful photos kitty thank you for sharing

Answer 4

This is a photo taken about 1959 of my husband's grandfather Hugh Hennen. He was a very positive person, and he looks like he is really enjoying playing music in his home.

Comments

Gorgeous photo of your husband granddad thank you for sharing

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Susan, thank you for your sweet comment.

Answer 5

My grandfather Charles Reuben Miller http://wikitree.com/wiki/Miller-56462 was a musician born in Owen Sound, Ontario in 1870.  By age 16 he was the youngest band leader in Canada as head of the Citizens Own Band where he played cornet.  Over his lifetime he played many instruments, performed professionally and wrote songs.  He even invented an instrument he called a Wonkifimad (spell it backwards) which was mentioned in the local newspaper.

He died in 1928 when my father was 12 but Dad inherited musical genes.  He taught himself to play piano and could "play by ear" as well as read music sheets so he played granddad's music for me as I grew up.  What joy it was to hear it.  If there were lyrics we'd sing along.  Charlie Miller was making music long after his death.

Comments

Thank you for posting this!  Simply amazing!

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Thank you, David.  It's a funny thing about passing on genes. Three of Charlie's four children were musical, two on piano, one on a horn but the other child not at all.  And I didn't inherit any musical ability from my father or grandfather, but I do love music so maybe that was inherited.

Answer 6

This is my cousin playing her clarinet (I think it's a clarinet, but I am NOT musical, so I could be wrong!) while visiting us on Christmas Day. Her parents are in the background.

Answer 7

I am not usually adding any photos of the week / month, but for this theme I have the perfect photo already on wikitree!

My grandfather Kalle loved music, photography and technology. He became an electrical engineer, but kept his other interests as hobbies.

Here he is in 1929 with his band on stage, probably practising.

Kalle plays the piano. The names of the others are unknown to me.

According to hearsay, the band name was Pagan Love Band.

Comments

Great photo, Maria.  I can relate.  My great aunt who raised my father said: "keep the piano playing as a hobby, not a profession."  So my father was happy with that as I imagine your grandfather was as well.

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Thank you, Pat!

Answer 8

My grandfather was quite the musician in his younger days. Here he is in 1908 at age 19 playing a cornet in the Mount Holly (NC) Band. He is right in the middle of this photo.

And, on his return home in 1916 from living in Houston, Texas, he stopped at his brother John's home. Here he is playing the banjo on the front porch:

That banjo is owned by my younger brother.

Grandpa also sang in the choir at church and was a member of the choir for the Billy Graham Crusade in Charlotte, NC, in 1959.

Comments

Amazing photos of your grandfather I love the old pictures thank you Pip for sharing

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Thank you my dear Susan!

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That is a great picture!

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Wow, Pip, another grandfather who played cornet and was in a band.  Thank you for sharing this. I love the banjo.

Answer 9

My mom with her guitar sometime in the 1940s. She was self taught and also played piano and mandolin.

Comments

Nice picture!  A little big.  There is a size setting you can adjust.  Click on the picture, go back into box where you put the picture URL, and you will see size settings.  Type: 450 in the top box, that should do it!

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It's not any bigger than some others on here. I like the size. Great photo!

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Fixed and thank you.

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Thanks, Eric!

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Gheesh, Cousin Donna! your mother could be my mom's sister! (looks wise) I have to check our relationship again! 

Cassie Draper, my mom!

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They do resemble each other don’t they Dave. Your mother was quite pretty.

Answer 10

We visited the 1940's Pioneer Village and the lady of the house offered to play some music, on her piano, after she finished putting the apple pie in the oven.

Answer 11

My great grandfather Henry Gardner was an avid singer! He was a member of his church choir and a local Glee Club (Orpheus) in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Also, as a young man, he was in the 'Baraca Quartet' with his brother and 2 friends around 1910-1911. They performed at Salvation Army Festivals and church events. 

Answer 12

Left to Right. My grandmother, Eileen Siefert Vaskie, Roy Clark (yes, that Roy Clark!), and family friend Lois. This was taken back stage at the Grand Ole Opry in December 1972. Somehow my grandparents became friends with Roy, and he would occasionally come to visit and hunt pheasant with my grandfather. I remember being around him, but I was pretty young at the time. 

Comments

Too cool. Way underrated as a player.

Answer 13

Photos of my Grandfather (who was an avid flautist) showing my older brother his flute in the mid-1980's

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Answer 14

My great-great-grandfather Benjamin Longan playing fiddle on a radio show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1952 with his son, Herman accompanying on guitar.

Ben's daughter, Jessie Longan, my great-grandmother, playing the same fiddle in 1965.

Comments

I hope you still have that fiddle! Do you play?

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When I was in elementary school I think I used that same violin in music class. But I don't know who in the family eventually inherited that fiddle / violin, or what happened to it.

Answer 15

My Grandmother being serenaded by an "Elvis" during her 90th Birthday Party (and Family Reunion).  

Unfortunately a serious heart issue hospitalized her just days before the party. However, she made the doctors release her just in time to attend the party. There was nothing that could keep my grandmother from having a good time or spending time with family.

Even for a non-musical family, music often finds a way to play a role in long lasting happy memories. She  passed away a couple of months later, but for many in the extended family their last memory of her was an event of music, fun and laughter.

Answer 16

This is the Trumpeter Corps of the City Music Club of Erkelenz.  My husband's 1C3R, Franz Joseph Frings (1879 - 1956) , was the director and probable one time trompeter in this band.  I am not certain which one he is, but there is an X under the second gentleman from the right, so probably him.  It is an awesome picture to have.

Answer 17

In April of 1987 I traveled to Augusta, Georgia to play the role of Henrik Egerman in A Little Night Music at the Augusta Opera. The character is a young seminary student who plays the cello to vent his frustrations. He happens to be in love with his stepmother, Anne (played by Rondi Charleston), and has to sing a song ("Later") while miming playing the cello.

Answer 18

This is my Great Grandfather Arthur MacKeen Anderson he was one of the founding members of the Donkin Citizen's Band.  I have this clip of him from 1919 when it was founded and I recently showed this to my mother and she never knew what he looked like (he died before she was born) and this is the first image of him she had ever seen  

Answer 19

My beloved cousin, Kelley Jo Anderson, was a violinist and played for the Seattle Symphony. We lost her too soon, she was only 56 when she passed.